I think Wests Tigers to represent to West of Brisbane/Ipswich would be great, not too suree

One team in Perth and Adelaide, with the Canberra, Melbourne and Auckland teams. Possibly a Wellington team?

That's 9 teams.. I know there are calls for a 12 team compitition but is it possible? I think 16 teams is the perfect format.

Add in Newcastle Knights.. that's 10 teams.. one Sydney team has to move to the Central Coast, thats 11 teams.. add in Penrith, who do produce the best youngsters atm and thats 12 teams, leaving 4 teams for Sydney.

Theres a map of the bases of teams.. (exclude Balmain and Norths)

So I'm thinking merge:

Wests Tigers and Parramatta Eels (representing the West)
Sydney Roosters and South Sydney (representing the East)
Cronulla and St.George (representing the South (and Sutherland Shire and Wollongong))
Canterbury and Manly (representing the North)

Or something like .. just basically four Sydney teams representing N,W,E,S is what we need, teams might relocate to Perth, Gosford etc but yteahh. leagues f***ed!

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I agree with certain aspects of your post, however I don't think an extra team in NZ is financially viable yet, as well as teams in Perth and Adelaide. It just wouldn't work.

I think it is an absolute must to have a 2nd team in Brisbane. Whilst I love my Broncos and the fantastic talent and fan base they have, being the only team in Brisbane should be a thing of the past. Brisbane is the home of Rugby League now.

The Central Coast needs a team as well.

For these two new teams to crop up, either 2 Sydney teams will need to be relocated or 2 Sydney teams will need to be abolished altogether so that the 2 new teams can crop up. I'd suggest the former because the brand is already well known but no doubt there will be plenty of people going on about how the relocation will be terrible because the current location is the club's spiritual home ground and all that hoo-haa.

I thought Parramatta were bringing in the best youngers in the game at the m oment.

Anyway i like the idea of losing some teams, but there is way to much history for all the teams, the fan base is just too big, i dont think any club will just sit back and watch their teams go, just look at souths.

Maybe a different format of somet kind is in order. have a premier division and a first division, split up the teams. 50/50 with a 1 up 1 down and a promotion relegation for bottom/top team, and a playoff for the 2nd last/2nd place team.

shorten the season and also have a knockout comp at the start of the season with all the teams.

Knocking out teams seemes like the best option at this point and it's been obvious for a long time that Sydney has to many teams but the problem with mergers and moving teams is the response from the fans who ultimately are going to be the ones filling the stadiums.

I myself am from the Central Coast and would love to see a Central Coast team but when I heard a few days ago that some had put up the idea of moving the Bulldogs up here I felt like throwing up.

A second QLD team is a must but again I don't think it can come from moving teams. People don't want to support a team that has moved up from Sydney they want to have their own team to support otherwise it just feels like you're supporting a fake.

The biggest problem the NRL faces at the moment is crowd numbers and while there are a number of reasons a big one is ticket prices. They are charging a ridiculous amount for tickets. NRL is targetted at low socio-economic households and there is no possible way people are going to pay the prices they're asking for.

Especially when you buy a a family pass to AFL games for near sixty dollars. Another problem is ANZ Stadium. Having a few thousand people sitting an 80,000+ capacity stadium just looks ridiculous.

A team in NZ maybe but not for a few more years.

I think the World Cup this year is going to give alot of insight into the future of Rugby League. There is little competition for Australia and I know that a Terrigal 1st Grade front rower is run on for the Samoan team which clearly shows the lack of depth of the other countries participating.

The future of Rugby League is going to decided over the next few years and unless the NRL can find some way to make more money and get more people to the games than whilst they will try and drag it out as long as they can league will eventually dwindle and die.

We can't just kill clubs tho. so many bring back somewhat of a NSWRL comp. as an undercard to a new NRL and those teams can feed into a bigger unified team or something. There's no real easy option that I can see in achieving what is needed and keeping fans happy.

Sydney teams are totally viable! i mean the fact they have rely on bleeding there fans dry with pokies and playing a s**t stadiums because they are bribed to is a sign of viability.Only reason that Brisbane is any different is because its a one-team town and you could see the ponies hitting hard times if a second team is introduced.

Typical eastern-centric shite neither Western Reds or Adelaide Rams got a fair chance and got screwed over by the super league war and News Limited the c**nts. Now we know that the NRL is here for the long term not just some flight of fancy of murdoch like the super league it can and must work.

You cannot claim to be a national league and not have a team west of Melbourne its a sham.

Knocking out teams seemes like the best option at this point and it's been obvious for a long time that Sydney has to many teams but the problem with mergers and moving teams is the response from the fans who ultimately are going to be the ones filling the stadiums.

I myself am from the Central Coast and would love to see a Central Coast team but when I heard a few days ago that some had put up the idea of moving the Bulldogs up here I felt like throwing up.

A second QLD team is a must but again I don't think it can come from moving teams. People don't want to support a team that has moved up from Sydney they want to have their own team to support otherwise it just feels like you're supporting a fake.

The biggest problem the NRL faces at the moment is crowd numbers and while there are a number of reasons a big one is ticket prices. They are charging a ridiculous amount for tickets. NRL is targetted at low socio-economic households and there is no possible way people are going to pay the prices they're asking for.

Especially when you buy a a family pass to AFL games for near sixty dollars. Another problem is ANZ Stadium. Having a few thousand people sitting an 80,000+ capacity stadium just looks ridiculous.

A team in NZ maybe but not for a few more years.

I think the World Cup this year is going to give alot of insight into the future of Rugby League. There is little competition for Australia and I know that a Terrigal 1st Grade front rower is run on for the Samoan team which clearly shows the lack of depth of the other countries participating.

The future of Rugby League is going to decided over the next few years and unless the NRL can find some way to make more money and get more people to the games than whilst they will try and drag it out as long as they can league will eventually dwindle and die. [/b]

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I think Sydney teams and the amount they have is a necessary evil (it will do alot more harm than good i fear i mean as someone said Newtown Jets and Bears fans just didnt go to the NRL anymore and started to support AFL etc) The AFL tried cutting down Melbourne teams in the 90's and only one fitzroy merged with Brisbane.They need to get in the position where they can financially prop-up these clubs and i'm saying this as a real "realist", to lose these clubs would do irreparable damage that i doubt the NRL could survive especially when it needs all its sydney clubs to stay connected with its heartland.

A team should go to the central coast one day great stadium and great people.

Not to mention the derby they would have with Newie.

New clubs would have to be created, like the A-League or whatever. Merging Souths/Easts & Dragons/Sharks won't work. [/b]

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I dont think either approach would work.

Just fold the competition and learn to play Rugby Union, simple. Bloody rebel ********. [/b]

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I find that funny you say that because you eventually adopted the thing we rebelled over!. :lol2tn:

While there are too many teams in Sydney it is difficult to cull any of them in the current sporting environment. AFL is expanding into Sydney and a getting rid of teams will send supporters there way (imagine if you are a school that had a close connection with the Panthers, who then just got culled or moved, when suddenly the AFL board comes over and drops a lump of gold on your lap what are you going to do?)

Mergers are alright, if they play at one stadium. Having 6 games at each venue is ridiculous, it does nothing to increase the fan base. Teams that have already merged are not likely to do so again. We need to follow the example of AFL and get teams that are in financial strife to play games interstate (Perth, Adelaide, Darwin etc.) to increase rugby there.